Slipping Away
by Mirror-of-Roses
Summary: Blake trips on the docks at the beach and falls into the ocean. She reflects on her life and what could have been.


Blake had been walking on the docks at the beach when she tripped and fell into the ocean. Blake had no idea how to swim, as she was deathly afraid of the water. She's wanted some peace and quiet, just sitting on the docks contemplating things, and here she was, slowly sinking into the depths of the ocean.

Her hair fanned out as she sank, her arms and legs feeling weightless as they drifted up, making her appear like she was on an invisible recliner with armrests. Her eyes were open, the amber orbs staring at the bright reflection of the sun above. She didn't breathe. She couldn't. Blake was helpless and about to meet her demise.

She decided that now was the time to reflect on her short life. She'd only been alive for seventeen years, but so much had happened, so many experiences, both good and bad.

She wanted to think about the good first. Her first day at Beacon during the initiation was one of the best days of her life. She'd met her team, her best friends. Blake was the B in RWBY, that would never change. _I wonder, if I die right now, what would my team be called? _Blake thought sorrowfully, her eyebrows scrunching together. _Would it be RWY? How can you even pronounce that? Rewind? Then they'd have to replace me with someone who's name starts with a D... That doesn't matter._

Blake thought about how accepting they were to her for being a Faunus. Even when she said that she was an ex-White Fang member, they still saw her for who she was, not what she was.

Her thoughts drifted to the White Fang and the protests she took part in as a child. She didn't regret it, because she'd stopped attending as soon as their leader was killed and a new one took his place. She didn't want violence, she didn't like it. _That's not the way to get equality._ Blake had always thought.

Realization hit her. She would never be able to help obatain equality between humans and Faunus, much less live to see the day. This saddened her even more than her inevitable death. What she'd been trying so hard all her life to get, she could never have or live to see a glimpse of it. Blake had desired to see the happy faces of Faunus, mostly Faunus children, when they'd get the respect they deserved. She'd longed to see the leader of the White Fang shaking hands with the highest power in Remnant in agreement to put the conflict to rest.

She felt her bow slip off her cat ears and stared at it as the black ribbon drifted away slowly, out of reach. Her little black bow had been her disguise, a cover for what she really was. Blake regretted wearing the thing in the first place. She was a bit jealous of Velvet Scarletina, who never wanted to pretend to be something she just couldn't be. Sure, she got teased, but she was happy with who she was and everything about her. Blake had wanted to put up a disguise, pretend to be a human when she wasn't happy with it at all. She did it all to fit in, something she'd promised herself at a young age not to do. _Be yourself!_ They said. She hadn't been herself for a long time.

Blake thought about what would happen after her death. That was the age old question, after all. What happens after death? Does your conscious go somewhere else, into a new human or Faunus? Does it die completely and you'd forget you'd ever existed? Are you trapped in your body with all your memories, wondering what could have been? Blake always thought it was the first option, being reborn. She wanted to start over, as a new human or Faunus in the future, have a better life than she's already had.

The Faunus felt the need to breathe desperately. _No! Don't! You'll fill up with water and die!_ She thought. She realized that she'd die either way, and trying to live a second longer would be futile. She pinched her nose and covered her mouth anyway. Her hands flew away from her face as she took in a huge amount of water and her vision started fading to black.

Her last thought was of her and her team graduating, taking a group photo in their grad gowns, all smiling, laughing, and thinking of the future. This wouldn't happen, of course, because the Faunus's conscience slipped away from existence, her body nothing but an empty shell of what she once was.


End file.
